Good Weather is Back!

On Wednesday our we woke knowing we had to go buy Selena a new bat, since her other bat got broke at the last practice. She has her first game on Saturday so off to the sporting goods store her and I went. We also decided to buy her her own batting helmet. There is just something about sharing hats and such that just does not get my approval. You bet once we got home she had to get her equipment and head out for some practice and try out her new bat.

You bet she hit that ball for me to take a picture of. I got a kick out of her though telling Papa that Mama picked out the bat. I did take the bat off the rack, but Selena was so taken by the wooden bats that she wouldn’t look at any of the rest of the bats on the rack. I guess she is right in a way that I did pick the bat out but only because she wouldn’t take her eyes off the wooden bats long enough to look at the bats that she could have. I was thrilled when we found the batting helmet especially since it is adjustable so it will grow with her.

Of course after our batting and catching practice it was time for some fun. Guess who Selena found…that is right Nibbles. I don’t think these little wooly bear caterpillars will ever be called anything but Nibbles. Selena had me run in and grab our new Nature book to see if it had any new information from what we had already learned. She wanted to know in particular when Nibbles would begin to build his/her cocoon. We discovered that it is probably looking for the perfect place now. We had learned earlier that they hibernate in he Winter, now we discovered that in Spring, April or May they find the perfect spot and build their cocoon.

I hope that Selena never looses her love or passion for nature and the world around her. It makes me so happy to see her so at peace when she is exploring the world around her.

Spring Break

We hadn’t planned on taking much of a Spring Break, but I guess it just sort of happened. The last two weeks have been filled with appointments fun and time off from studies. Now that our rain is back I would love to just pick back up and get back where we left off. Next week though, we will begin again next week.

Selena had a dentist appointment to get sealants put on her teeth, but yet again her anxieties got the best of her and she just could not go through with it. They were even going to give her extra sedation for her anxieties but she could not get enough courage to even take a taste of the medication. We’ve come to wonder if the benefits of the sealants really will out way how anxious and stressed she gets over all of this, but then I remind myself should she get a cavity she does need to realize and understand it isn’t all horrible to have them work on her teeth. I don’t really know how we will proceed from here.

It is times like this though that I realize we have come a long way helping Selena deal with her anxieties but we still have a long way to go too. It also reminds me that even the BEST children specialists sometimes just do not know how to deal with every single special need child. I don’t mean to sound like our dentist treated her poorly, but did make a comment that she needed to learn it is unacceptable for her to not cooperate in his office. I understand his point, but at some point we need to understand the needs of our child and realize how hard this is for them. Do we force them to be cooperative and compliant under any situation they face or do we allow them to have a little awareness of how they feel and be able to speak up and say this is truly something I do not want to do?

I sway back and forth on this issue, I want Selena to be strong willed and stand up for herself, and stand against what she feels is not right for her, though I also want her to have the understanding that sometimes we have to move beyond our fears and anxieties and cooperate when it is in our best interest. I suppose I have come to the resolve that in order to help her, we are just going to have to let this ride at this point, and continue to work with her and her control of her emotions and anxieties. I know she will eventually realize the difference of necessity and being in actual harms way.

On another note, Tuesday evening Selena had a Disney Princess party to attend with the girls from church. They were doing a slumber party but we did not stay for the entire night of fun. We did however, stay about 3 hours and Selena had a blast. They had a nice dinner of spaghetti. Then moved on to make-up. Selena put on her own make-up just like the older girls did, and I have to say she did a very good job doing so. I am hoping to get my hands on the many pictures taken that evening here soon. Right now I have this one to share, early on in the evening before the fun began.

We’ve also been having fun babysitting this week. Selena has had so much fun having her friend over. These two girls have known each other since Selena was born, they grew up together, yet from kind of a distance. It has been of late that her mom and I have become more acquainted. I look forward to Selena spending more time with this friend, she is such a sweet girl. It’s been a real pleasure having her here, for being 7 years old, her manners and maturity is far beyond her years. She is such a sweet and a good influence to have around Selena.

Thought it was so cute and ironic that they were dressed in such matching outfits. No, this was not planned!

Spring Keeps Trying

We woke up yesterday morning and while it was cloudy it was not raining. Since I just bought a batting T for Selena I felt it was a good time to get outside and get some batting practice in. After showing her a few tips, you know how hard it is to bat with a little child’s bat, she went to work mastering her batting. I must admit she did very well, probably better then I expected. The most important part though was we both had so much fun and did a lot of laughing.

According to the weather report I heard in the morning the weather was suppose to get windy and start raining in the afternoon, but instead it ended up being a very pleasant day. Selena was able to go back out and show Papa her skills and play a little catch with him when he got home. She was so proud of her accomplishment at bat, and kept reminding Papa that “Grandma taught me!” I think it is hilarious that these kids just assume that Grandma doesn’t know how to play ball.

We did take some time to again look for new signs of Spring. I noticed the other day that there are daffodils along the highway, so yes, our Spring is trying to make it’s way. We did however observe a lot of birds in the yard, more robins, and sparrows.

 

I would like to say that our nice weather is here to stay, but we know there is more rain in the forecast. Although at this point next week is suppose to be really nice. We sure hope so, we are so wanting to just get outside and have some fun. I am so ready to hit the hiking trails, but of course it will be a while yet as I am sure they are still pretty muddy.

Signs of Spring

I anticipated our first walk to look for signs of Spring to be done as a family. Unfortunately with Papa and Selena sick, I went by myself. With yesterday being chilly but very sunny I could resist no longer, so off I went to tour our property for what ever glimpses of Spring I could find. Besides the most obvious of birds returning and the sounds of all the frogs in a distance at night, I found many other less obvious signs.

Like this bright little bud reaching for the warm sun on the tree at the back side of our house.

While everything still appeared so dormant along the fence line I did find this one little bush beginning to bud out.

The rhododendron in the front of the house truly is going to town blossoming out.

Then the Lilies are beginning to sprout with new growth. I do believe this fall that this Lily will have to be dug up and divided now that I know how huge of a clump it actually is. that should be a lot of fun.

Through my discoveries I couldn’t help but take some fun pictures of just things I found interesting looking. Such as the texture on this old tree, well what is left of what use to be a tree.

I hope that Selena is feeling better here real soon, so that we can go and explore more signs of Spring together. She is at least able to look at all these pictures and know that her wish for Summer is not too far away.

Sunday Sunny Fun

After church we came home to a beautiful 60 degree, sunny day. Since Selena fell asleep in my arms at Church, which believe me I didn’t want to wake her up to come home, we decided not to have naps but head outside to play. Believe me when I say I didn’t want to come home from church, I could have sat there for the next hour or two and just let her sleep in my arms. I don’t think she has fell asleep in my arms like that since she was a baby. I was taking it all in having her cuddled in my arms, face buried in my chest as she so sweetly slept.

Once we got home her and Papa went out and found a tree frog. Of course they didn’t give me enough time to get out there with my camera to get pictures of this sweet little fellow. Selena enjoyed being able to look at him, touch him, then watched as the neighbor took him to a nice big tree and let him go. For the next few minutes Selena had to run around and make frog sounds, telling me all about the little fellow she just discovered.

Play for Selena would not be complete if she didn’t sweep our yard, and the neighbor’s yard. Of course she always has to sweep the sidewalk and the driveway as well.

We also had to stop and smell the flowers.

Selena was totally taking in every bit of this flower smelling that she could. Truly these are very large flowers. Good thing there wasn’t any bee in this one.

  What would smelling the flowers be without smelling some dandelions as well.

We also discovered that our rhododendrons are finally in bloom. This just happened today in this heat. We had some pretty large buds yesterday, so we were thrilled to discover them opened up and so pretty today.

Poor Selena’s play came to an end though when she was running and fell. She got her first official booboo. She has had scrapes but never something that would require band aides. At least it didn’t require stitches.

The rains are suppose to return soon. We are praying that the rains get pushed back away from us and they miss us all together. No matter we had a fun day playing, and learning in the yard Sunday afternoon. Selena is so ready for the weather to stay like this, she wanted her swimming pool brought out and didn’t understand why we said it was still to early. We will just continue to take advantage of what nice days we do get to go out and explore.

Nature Hike #1 2010

We were very blessed today with the most beautiful day. We decided to take Selena for a Nature Hike at Lake Sylvia which is just a mile from our home.

We have a huge push to save this Lake and prevent it’s closure. It is such a beautiful place, with fishing year around and trails in all directions. Besides picnic areas, there is a swimming area and also camping above the lake.

Some History: In 1871 this spot was homesteaded by a man who used the swift waters of this creek for a water operated saw mill. In 1909 there was a Dam built on the lower end creating Lake Sylvia. The Dam was used for water and power for our little town of Montesano. The operations of the Dam were demolished in the 1930’s and was donated to the State for a State Park.

We found a lot of beautiful Cedar and Alder, oh I am sure there were other types of trees as well. One of the things I have always loved over here is the lovely ground cover of ferns. We examined moss on the trees, stumps, and Selena was impressed by how the trees formed a natural canopy over our trail.

We found an animal print in the mood which I believe is from an Elk. We found a slug, which Selena thought was pretty cool and wanted to bring  home, I guess you know that didn’t happen.

  I know I kind of cut Papa’s head off in this picture, but this is my favorite picture of all, Selena and Papa enjoying the beautiful world around us. Yes, and what would a nature hike be without a walking stick?

Selena also got to see someone catch a fish. She was kind of confused over that. But she did stand there and watch him bring the fish in and take it off the hook. I wondered what was going on in her head as she stood there in complete silence.

Daffodil Parade

We woke up this morning to cold windy but sunny weather. We decided to go on ahead and take our chances by driving the 75 miles to see if we would be able to enjoy the Daffodil Parade. We pulled into my Aunt and Uncle’s house at about 12:00 and the weather was breezy but pleasant.

This is truly a special time for us as my Uncle has Alzheimer and Palsy so we cherish every chance we get to spend some time with him. Selena loves to go see her Uncle Wayne so much that she will literally cry if she thinks we are not going. Uncle Wayne of course had meat loaf and macaroni and cheese for us to eat for lunch when we got there.

By 1:30 time to walk down to the parade the weather was actually getting warm, the wind was a calm gentle breeze, so for the third year in a row now we have had great weather for the parade. My Uncle does not go with us, but my Aunt always looks forward to us coming to go down with her.

Selena thought it was one huge party and had to entertain everyone while we waited for the parade to start.

The parade is starting, Selena was waiting in anticipation as she spotted it getting closer to us.

Nothing but pure joy on Selena’s face as she while she watched all the bands and floats coming in her direction.

 

 

Floats Galore, Horses! What more!

PIRATES!! This particular pirate decided he didn’t like his picture taken so he came over to get me with his sword, he noticed my bag under my chair and decided to investigate a bit more then he should, so we ended up in a dual for the bag!

Of course we had clowns. This one wanted to get right up and personal with Selena as I took his picture, she wasn’t scared but wasn’t sure she wanted to get any closer to him either.

This tractor was actually pulling a wagon that had every State Flag represented. With the US flag that was 51 Flags on this wagon!

We had one pretty tired little girl as the Parade came to the end. We all had a blast though, and enjoyed ourselves very much. All of her dancing, waving, and clapping caught up with her.

Sorry about all the pictures, but what is a Parade without pictures?

Taking School Outside

This afternoon we just had to get out and enjoy our beautiful weather. I actually got Selena outside without thinking she had to have her bike. Selena discovered that the moon was out, and insisted on using my camera to get a picture of it.

I laughed so hard, as she stood near the sidewalk to take these pictures, a couple and their child walked in front of her. Selena stopped and in the most serious voice said, “I am sorry, but I am trying to get a picture of the moon.” The mother turned around and said, “Oh your ok, go on ahead and get a picture of the moon.” Selena put her hand on her hip and informed her, “Don’t walk like that I am trying to get a picture of the moon.” The mom didn’t know that Selena was trying to tell her don’t walk in front of me when I am trying to take a picture of the moon. I could hardly hold in the laughter.

By clicking on the pictures above you can see that she did get great pictures of the moon.

Then we had some fun!

Chasing the ball, flower still in hand. She calls these Dandiflowers.

Throwing the ball, and yes her Dandiflower is still in hand.

Leap Frog Anyone?

More of Selena’s photography skills.

Finally my first flowers! I am so looking forward to getting more flowers this summer. These are my shrubs that I planted two years ago, boy they have grown since then.